DairyKing's Journal, 18 May 2015

Good Morning, FS Warriors! Sometimes I feel like I am in a football game where I keep putting my head down and charging forward, only to be driven back behind the line of scrimmage. Doesn't matter if you understand football; I'll bet every one of you knows what I'm talking about. I haven't had a bad time, I'm not grumbling; it just seems that sometimes I spend a lot of time treading water. That is true whether it is maintaining my equipment, or trying to lose weight.

I think I have too much "stuff." Right now, I have 4 riding mowers in various states of repair, about 6 push mowers, and a half dozen weed eaters. Combine that with two tractors and various attachments, and you would think I have one heck of an estate to maintain. However, I hate to admit it, but I only have about 1 1/2 acres, and the school and the gym take up a good portion of that. I have a friend that thinks he needs to bring over lawnmowers and weedeaters, that he finds sitting by the curb, and leave them in my garage because "they probably won't require much for me to fix them". Or he borrows my riding mower to mow his yard, and drives it like he's in a demolition derby. I tell him he's an idiot, and he just laughs at me. I'm starting to feel convicted because, maybe he is an idiot. Anyway, he seems to have a good heart, he's just a little different. He'd do anything for my family and me though. But, he does ensure I have plenty to repair. I have quit loaning him my riding mowers. Funny, because now he works for a landscaping company now, and they let him bring home $15,000 lawnmowers to mow his yard.

My pupply (Onyx) is about 30 pounds now. The Vet says she's perfect (even with the deformed foot and leg) and, if we don't want her, he'd gladly take her off our hands. We had xrays taken to make sure she isn't in any pain or anything, and the Vet says she is fine. She's a spitfire, and you'd never know she had any deformity, if you could see her run and jump. She's finally able to go through the big doggy door, so she is now cohabitating with Mack (130 pounds), except when I have to kennel her up alone, so she will eat her food. If I was to put her food in with both of them, the big dog would eat it all, and I can't have that.

We had a great weekend with friends and family. Kind of a working weekend. The transmission went bad on granddaughter's Trailblazer, so we got one from the salvage yard with low miles on it. A couple of guys that had helped replace DD's transmission a few months ago, came over and replaced this one. We also replaced the water pump, and a tie rod end (a steering component) while they were here. I got the belt and blades replaced on my pull-behind mower deck, replaced the spindle (where the blade attaches) on one of the riding lawn mower decks, repaired a windmill that DW had drug home from an auction, entertained a slew of kids and still managed to organize the entryway mudroom. I let the 3-yr old drive the big tractor around the block (while sitting on my lap of course), pitched balls to the kids so they could hit me with line drives, and played kickball. We re-fueled with lots of hot dogs and brats. All in all, a good day.

I have failed miserably on the diet. Well, actually I didn't fail - because I haven't been on anything that even remotely resembles a diet. DW has been bringing home dougnut holes, coffee cakes, and just about everything known to stretch the limits of my (already relaxed fit) jeans. I would like to say that I have struggled and failed, but the truth of the matter is, I haven't put up much of a fight. I have to find again that drive that has always worked for me before. Buffy mentioned that she was struck by the concept of having an "End Game." I think that my downfall has always been the "all or nothing" goal plan. I need to start breaking my plan up into mini-success stories. Every pound that comes off should make it easier to bend over, go up stairs, play with the kids, improve the blood pressure, etc. I think I'm going to start thinking of this journey as a series of First Downs, where each First Down is a success story in itself, and gives me an opportunity to come up with a plan to achieve the next First Down, as I make my way down the field to the End Goal. Those that get to their end goal, really need to have an End Game plan, or they (or we) are destined to repeat history all over again. Right now, I need to concentrate on eating this elephant one bite at a time.

The Nursing Home Ministry is going full steam again. We played to a packed house last Wednesday. We are having more and more fun doing it. We found that a lot of times, we weren't getting the people out there because the Activity Director would fail to tell anyone we were coming, and all that would be there would be the stragglers that were the slow eaters, and just happended to be there when we got there. You see, the nursing home cafeterias double as the gathering center. What we have stated doing is calling that day to make sure everyone knows we are coming, and it seems to be making a difference.

Well, this is probably a long enough novel for anyone to endure. life is good. The alternative sucks. Here's praying success to all my FS Friends. Toodles!